1. Field of Invention
This invention is concerned with producing a medial axis representation of a two-dimensional binary image, and more particularly with producing such representation at speeds much greater than heretofore possible using a general purpose serial processor without having breaks in the medial axis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is often necessary or desirable to represent a binary stored elongate image having widths on the order of perhaps five or ten picture elements (pixels) by a medial axis of just one pixel wide along the center of the image. If the original image approximates a line-like structure, the medial axis representation thereof retains the important geometrical aspects even though it is only one pixel in width. A medial axis representation of a solid figure such as a rectangle or a triangle is not indicative of the original shape but the medial axis approach is not intended for such a structure.
The medial axis representation is a useful data structure for data compression, date presentation, and as input for additional processes that can deduce important morphological relationships between the constituent parts of the image. Some example uses are for reduction in data transmission costs over communication links due to the format compression, electronic representation of cartographic elevation data from original transducers such as video cameras, seismic detectors, and sonar arrays. In the prior art algorithms for creating a medial axis of an image required analyzing many pixels at once and then sometimes created breaks in the medial axis.